Olivier Bles

Université Libre de Bruxelles | ULB · Unit of Social Ecology (USE)

Food sharing can occur in both social and non-social species but is crucial in euso-cial species in which only some group members collect food. This food collection but also intranidal (i.e. inside the nest) food distribution through trophallactic (i.e. mouth-to-mouth) exchanges are fundamental issues in eusocial insects. However, the behavioural r...

In most eusocial insects, the division of labour results in relatively few individuals foraging for the entire colony. Thus, the survival of the colony depends on its efficiency in meeting the nutritional needs of all its members. Here, we characterise the network topology of a eusocial insect to understand the role and centrality of each caste in...

Intranidal food dissemination through trophallactic exchanges is a fundamental issue in social insect colonies, but its underlying mechanisms are far from being clear. In light of the division of work, network theory and collective food management we develop a framework to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the trophallactic network in star...

Au cours de cette thèse, des outils théoriques (simulation) et expérimentaux (tracking) ont été développés afin d’établir les mécanismes sous-jacents aux phénomènes de choix collectifs d’exploitation de sources de nourriture et à la gestion collective des stocks de nourriture constitués au sein d’une colonie de fourmis. Le premier volet de mon trav...

Insect societies are often composed of many individuals, achieving collective decisions that depend on environmental and colonial characteristics. For example, ants are able to focus their foraging effort on the most rewarding food source. While this phenomenon is well known, the link between the food source quality and the intranidal food dissemin...

In socials insects, exploration is fundamental for the discovery of food resources and determines decision-making. We investigated how the interplay between the physical characteristics of the paths leading to food sources and the way it impacts the behaviour of individual ants affects their collective decisions. Colonies of different sizes ofLasiu...

Collective decisions regarding food source exploitation in social insects are influenced by a range of parameters, from source quality to individual preference and social information sharing. Those regarding the elevation of the physical trail towards a food source have been neglected. In this work, we investigated the effect of ascending and desce...